If scarcity is dead on the Web, the Charlotte Agenda didn’t get the memo. Charlotte Agenda is a North Carolina-based news site that launched earlier this year with a simple, if counter-intuitive advertising model: Rather than work with large group of advertisers on low-CPM display deals, the site plans to pursue big partnerships with a handful of local and regional brand advertisers. That, in theory, means more ad revenue.

Regional publishers rely for their survival on the local communities which their journalism served. That was the established ecosystem for many decades, until the advent of the internet robbed the publishers of the classified ad section which made up much of their revenue, and falling print circulations as audiences get their local news from digital sources.

For local media in the US, advertising revenue still determines our success. Sure, we’re trying to shift more of the revenue to readers with digital paid content strategies, but we still live and die on ads. And one thing that has struck me since I took over as executive editor of a handful of newspapers in the US state of Wisconsin, is how the retail landscape has shifted in my communities over the past fifty years.

According to this year’s Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 28% of American and United Kingdom news audiences who could recall seeing native advertising online said it made them feel less positive about the news organization carrying it.

Content Marketing is the buzz term on everyone lips, but native advertising has also been steadily gaining traction as brands look to best utilize new content distribution methods and means to spread their message, particularly via online platforms. But which one delivers better results? A new report from the combined forces of Fractl andMoz, and published Harvard Business Review, aims to answer just that.

Michele’s List is an invaluable compilation of the most promising local online-native news sites trying to make a go of it in this disrupted age. Compiled by Michele McLellan, the list’s admissions criteria are that a site is “progressing on three fronts — content, engagement and revenue.” McLellan periodically surveys the list’s members on a host of issues; we wrote about her most recent findings earlier this month.

Journalism has a revenue problem — as in, not enough. News companies are desperate for solutions, scrounging pennies and quarters from the back of the couch. Paywalls this month, pay-to-play events next month. A little here, a little there. And when one solution doesn’t work, news digs up an older idea, and tries it in a different flavor.